The Princess Blog

I recently sent out a survey on several of my social media accounts to get a better idea of what types of posts you would like to read on The Princess Blog. One of you requested reviews of princess content from black creators. It just so happened that I had a new adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" on my reading list by a black author that I was dying to get started on. I review many "Little Mermaid' adaptations and even wrote my own, yet I never get tired of reading them becuase the story is so versatile. Will she end up with the prince? How does she communicate? Is she a mermaid or a selkie? Does she already have experience as a human or is their world completely new to her? The Dark Mermaid by Christina L. Barr is a refreshing and expertly crafted new take on Hans Christian Andersen's tale that explores the risk the mermaid underwent by chasing after her dreams. It also builds a rich undersea setting that rivals the land of Sirenea in the Filipino mermaid seri…

There has been a growing trend among princess shows over the past few years. Princesses always forgive the ones who hurt them the most. Though the Warrior Princess archetype has grown more popular now than ever before, it is still an inborn characteristic of a princess to choose the path of the lover over the fighter unless she is given no other option. The parallels between the endings of Tangled: The Series and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power this year are so prominent that they could have been written by the same person. Both shows feature a princess who is betrayed by her best friend and end with the two frenemies working out their differences and confessing their love for each other with the fate of the world at stake. Even though both Cassandra and Catra chose to lash out against their former princess allies with violence, Rapunzel and Adora proved to be the bigger person by refusing to fight back because violence only leads to more violence. This is an important and powerful…

Yesterday, Camille Peters released her latest book in the Kingdom Chronicles, and I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC. Enchantment is a loose adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" about a merchant's daughter who finds herself trapped in a castle by an enchanted garden. It takes place in the same world as the other Kingdom Chronicles books, which I've had some mixed feelings about. My favorite by far is Identity, which was the first in the series to introduce a formidable villain. Enchantment has some conflict and adversaries, but none of it comes into play until the last few chapters. The majority of the book is a traditional love story, which works fine if you are looking for a peaceful read. However, if you are seeking action and adventure, it might be better to skip ahead to the end.


Enchantment begins in the middle of Maren's story, when she finds herself bound to the grounds of a castle after plucking a rose from its enchanted garden. She explains to the …

If you are already subscribed to my mailing list, you probably received an email this morning that my book The Stolen Queen is now available on Amazon for Kindle and paperback. I was going to wait until August for the anniversary of The Princess Blog, but with all the awful things going on right now, I thought it would be nice to give my readers a chance to relax and escape from their towers. The Stolen Queen is a sequel to The Stolen Jewel, but it can easily be enjoyed as a standalone story due to the new protagonist and setting. I decided to follow in the footsteps of the other authors I read and give each of the royal ladies of Klingland her own book. In case you missed it, I also published a short story from the perspective of Denise in my blog a few months ago as a free prequel to The Stolen Trilogy. The final book will be told from the perspective of Lady Krystal, who has a great number of misdeeds to make up for.


Just like The Stolen Jewel, The Stolen Queenstarted out as a scre…

A few months ago, I reviewed the book Dragon's Maid from the Love's Enchanted Tales series by Kimberly A. Rogers. I enjoyed the fantasy, originality, and romance of Dragon's Maid, so I decided to go back and read the first book in the series, which was based on my favorite fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid."Selkie's Song was not the first "Little Mermaid" adaptation I've read with a selkie protagonist, but I still prefer KM Shea's version, The Little Selkie, due to its faster pacing and stronger heroine. There was so much I wanted to like about Selkie's Song, especially due to its many tongue-in-cheek references to the Disney movie, but most of the story drags like crazy due to poor decision-making on behalf of the main character. I can see from reading Dragon's Maid that Kimberly Rogers improved her writing as the series progressed, so I suppose this was more of an experimental book to set up the vast dragon-centric world of Love'…

If you've been following my blog for a while, you probably noticed that I posted book reviews almost every week for the past couple of years. All of that started when I received the first book in Melanie Cellier's Four Kingdoms series, The Princess Companion, as a Hanukkah present from a friend. That got me started on a long-running obsession with reading every princess ebook I could get my hands on. I've read and reviewed all of her books since then and was a little disappointed when she switched from her fairy tale retellings to The Spoken Mage series. Now, the world of the Four Kingdoms is back with The Secret Princess, the first book in a new series called Return to the Four Kingdoms that takes place in the same world as her other retellings. The book features Princess Giselle, a minor character from A Crown of Snow and Ice, and it just might be the most perfect fairy tale book ever.

The Secret Princess is a retelling of the underappreciated Grimm fairy tale, "The…

Reports of recent production delays made me question whether or not the upcoming Disney+ original movie Secret Society of Second-Born Royals was far enough along to premiere this summer as initially promised. Two days ago, I received my answer when a long-anticipated trailer for the action-packed princess flick was finally dropped alongside a release date of July 17th. I was excited about this movie not because I have a preference for princesses who kick butt, but instead because of its lead actress, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, who starred in the brilliant Disney Channel sitcom Andi Mack. Peyton is an endearing and talented actress who will take on the role of Sam, the younger sister of the crown princess of Illyria. Another familiar face in the Secret Society is its teacher, Skylar Astin, the second actor to take on the role of Greg in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that currently portrays the character of Max in another musical drama, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. The trailer gives us a first g…